A Catholic mother and her three children narrowly escaped being burned
to death today following a loyalist attack.

A traumatised Janette Nelson and her family escaped by climbing up onto
an adjoining roof of the house in the early hours of this Friday
morning.

It was the third sectarian attack on their home in Newtownards, County
Down, in the past month.

Ms Nelson, who is 38, her two-year-old son and daughters aged seven and
12, were being treated for shock today but are otherwise unhurt.

She said she was “terrified” as the thick, black smoke filled the
property and said that if her smoke alarm hadn’t worked, her and her
children could have been killed.

“I was absolutely terrified and so were my children,” she explained.

“I still am terrified. If it hadn’t been for the smoke alarm myself and
my children wouldn’t be here now because the black smoke was coming up
the stairs and I was choking.”

The family were woken by the alarm as heavy smoke filled the property
after 2am. A neighbour was alerted to the fire and climbed onto a shed
beside the house.

Janette described waking up her young kids and bringing them to the
bathroom at the back of the house.

She said: “I was in bed and just jumped up. When I came out to the
landing I felt this immense heat coming up the stairs and saw the front
door was all in flames.

“I lifted my son, who is only two, and a phone. Then I went into the
girls’ room. I got them into the bathroom and called the police.

“I couldn’t get out the window but minutes later the firefighters were
there and I just remember being taken out and not much after that.”

The house has previously been targeted twice in recent weeks when
graffiti was painted on the walls, windows were smashed and a car was
damaged. Last week, the words ‘Taigs out’ [Catholics out] were daubed
all over her home.

Speaking at the time, single mother of three Janette said she couldn’t
understand why she is being targeted.

“We have lived here for a long time and we’ve not had any problems and
it’s just heartbreaking,” she said.

“My kids don’t know anything about religion or sectarianism, I’ve not
brought them up like that.”

There is also long history of anti-Catholic violence in County Down. In
1920, more than 1,000 Catholic families across the county had their
homes set on fire in a wave of unionist pogroms known as ‘The Burnings’.

Last month, a Catholic home in west Belfast was petrol bombed by
loyalists. Also last month, there was an attempt to burn a Polish family
out of their home in Glanarm in county Antrim.

In 1998, three young children were murdered in a similar loyalist attack
in Ballymoney. The boys -- Richard Quinn, 11, Mark Quinn, 9, and Jason
Quinn, 7 -- were asleep in their beds when a petrol bomb was thrown
through a window, and all three perished.